From the category archives:

Tips

Selling Your Home: Adding A Handrail To A Tricky Staircase

May 24, 2013
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Tweet You should definitely install a proper handrail before opening your home to potential buyers, said Marcos G. Cohen, an executive vice president at Douglas Elliman Real Estate in Manhattan. “Safety is the No. 1 reason,” he said. “You never know who’s going to come to see your house. It could be an elderly person [...]

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Try, Try Again: 6 Tips For Relisting A Home

May 24, 2013
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Tweet Relisting a home isn’t an enviable position for any seller. Something went wrong the first time, and for many sellers, trying again to sell the home raises more questions than answers. While it’s common for real estate agents to handle relistings, data on just how common the situation is can be hard to come [...]

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Is It Better To Rent Or Buy? It Depends On Location And Time

May 22, 2013
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Tweet There are many difficult choices to make when deciding whether to rent or buy a home, but one of the most important factors is also among the easiest to determine: How long do you plan on staying in the home or neighborhood under consideration? It has long been a rule of thumb that if [...]

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How To Handle Your Parents Moving In With You

May 22, 2013
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Tweet Multigenerational households are becoming more common – and it’s not just unemployed adult children moving in with baby boomer parents. Longer lifespans and rising health care costs are bringing more aging parents into their children’s spare rooms. According to the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers, from 2000 to 2007, the number of [...]

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10 Easy Ways To Save For A Down Payment

May 17, 2013
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Tweet The down payment is often the toughest hurdle to clear when buying a home. Whether your goal is $5,000 or $50,000, consider these 10 simple ways to save for your down payment. For example, try to negotiate your rent. With rent likely near the top of your list of expenses, cutting its cost can [...]

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7 Secrets Your Credit Report Won’t Reveal

May 17, 2013
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Tweet Do you feel like your credit report is spying on you? Sometimes it seems like just about everything personal is included in your credit history, including your name, address and Social Security number. Even your birth date is on it. But you still have a few secrets even your credit report doesn’t know. Here [...]

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5 Tips To Sell Your Home This Spring

May 17, 2013
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Tweet If you want to sell your home this spring, prepare for pent-up buyer demand. Spring might be an even livelier home-selling season this year because homebuyers want to act before interest rates or home prices rise. Glen Gill, broker and owner at Landmark Properties in Sugar Land, Texas, says three things sell a home [...]

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Selling Your Home: Why Pets Don’t Appear In Listing Photos

May 15, 2013
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Tweet While the prized possessions of property owners might feature in residential listing photographs – artwork, furniture, décor – there’s one thing that won’t: their pets. No matter how cute, fluffy or personable they might make a property for pet lovers; marketing directors have traditionally shied away from including them in listings. “A pet is [...]

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Freddie Mac: Financial Assets Can Be Used As Qualifying Income

May 14, 2013
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Tweet Freddie Mac is hoping to spread information about a rule that allows people to leverage financial assets such as retirement accounts as qualifying income when applying for mortgage loans. Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), 401(k)s, distributions from retirement accounts, and funds acquired from the sale of a business can all contribute to a potential borrower’s [...]

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How ‘Rapid Rescore’ Affects Your Credit

May 14, 2013
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Tweet When getting a mortgage, “rapid rescore” is a phrase worth knowing. Credit scores ebb and flow as information is updated to the credit report. While the rapid rescore has “been around forever,” the concept of quickly updating a credit history – and getting a new credit score based on that newly updated file – [...]

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